By Catherine Sensei
Sometimes people imagine that retreat is just sitting still for a month, which may not seem compelling. It’s far more fascinating than that. With meditation, we don’t just sit: we watch the mind. It’s an incredible entity!
By Catherine Sensei.
In a few days I’ll begin my first solitary retreat in over twenty years of spiritual practice, for a month. I’ve done month-long retreats before, and usually I was either helping organize or teach. So it’s been a while, or maybe it’s never been.
How Sex and Dharma Healed my Relationship with Women (and Myself) We all have individual Dharmic paths that lead towards our own
My form as a woman has experienced the bardo of birth through my flesh, and then within weeks my daughter’s death bardo.
The two events were so close together I realized that these passages are made of the same energy.
Learning To Meditate Off The Cushion It’s amazing when you enter a clear and radiant state on the meditation cushion. But can
When I was in university, things got clearer.
I was seeing a psychiatrist and in one session, he said that I have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD, under which Asperger’s is now classified).
It’s a feeling that’s unexplainable, but during that week, I had a taste of what it felt like to be deeply connected to something. To something bigger than myself. Bigger than my problems and my struggles.
When the S*#! Hits the Fan, What Colour is Your Raincoat? The blow-up had been building for some time. It just needed
One thing I gained from this taste of surrender was a feeling of deep peace and tranquility. When I didn’t care if I got what I wanted or not anymore, a true sense of freedom arose.
I Was Iron Ore in the Clear Sky Forge By Ignacio Dirdam Metallurgy, which is the study of metallic chemistry and its
Do you ever feel anxious? I do, quite often. But, it’s turning into a lot of fun. I’ve realised my baseline anxiety is actually a reservoir and asset, for a really really exciting life.
On the other hand, have you ever experienced sitting down to meditate, and watching the mind gradually calm down? I hope so, and I guess we might call that a “good meditation” compared to ones where we feel like the monkey mind dominated the show.
As spiritual warriors, then, we’re trying to stay on the path that leads to awakening. Anytime we veer off the path, or even pause and step off it for a moment, our progress is slowed.
The point of seeing the “sin” is to remember the path we were meant to be on – it’s not about being at fault.
Instead of going through your day as you normally would, dedicate the day to looking at a particular question. It just takes a few minutes to reframe your day.
Ways to keep your meditation practice going When I first started meditating, it felt great. I’d had a little instruction and I
What are our judgements based on? As you read the first paragraph, and all of this article, what conditions are influencing your judgement of the experience?
When was the last time you had an open, in-depth conversation about your attitude to money? Or to sex?
On such taboo topics, it’s rare that we consciously face what lies underneath our surface reactions and responses to them. Yet, sometimes we have to face them, and it may not be pretty.
Many of us are living and working in different ways, and yet something hasn’t changed: we’re still prone to our internal dialogues about what’s going on around us, and within us.
If our first responsibility is our own state, before we go fixing others’, then what does it mean to be in a good state?
How different do your days look recently? Even without the backdrop of a global pandemic, it’s an uneasy feeling to suddenly have
I don’t have full recall of that evening, and yet obviously either I didn’t ask, or he didn’t give much of an answer. So, something in me doesn’t expect much of an answer, doesn’t expect to get to the bottom of things. It might be family or cultural conditioning, of course, and yet the why is no longer relevant.
As a spiritual warrior, having seen the pattern, the idea is to see what happens when we consciously try to do something different.
Are you looking for a space to retreat alone, or to just unwind and reflect? We have three private cabins with valley views.
We can help you with a supportive balance of formal meditation time and optional mindful activities. Or, you can use the space for deep rest, journaling, or reflecting.
Locally sourced / organic meals provided. Optional daily meditation guidance is available.
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